Biography

Andrew Billings is the Director of the Alabama Program in Sports Communication and Ronald Reagan Chair of Broadcasting in the Department of Telecommunication & Film. His research interests lie in the intersection of sport, mass media, consumption habits, and identity-laden content. With ten books and over 100 journal articles and book chapters, he is one of the most published sports media scholars in the world. His books include Olympic Media: Inside the Biggest Show on Television (Routledge, 2008) and The Fantasy Sport Industry: Games within Games (Routledge, 2014) and his journal outlets include the Journal of Communication, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Mass Communication & Society, and the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. His writings have been translated into five languages. He also serves on many editorial boards, including as an Associate Editor of the journal Communication & Sport.

Billings’ work has won numerous awards from organizations such as the National Communication Association, the Broadcast Education Association, and the Association for Education in Mass Communication and Journalism. He is the current chair of the Sports Interest Group of the International Communication Association, a former Research Symposium Chair for the Broadcaster Education Association, and the former Chair of the Mass Communication Division of the National Communication Association. He has lectured in nations around the world, from Spain to China to Austria. His work in the classroom has also earned him many teaching awards. He has been interviewed over 500 times by media outlets ranging from The New York Times to The Los Angeles Times to ESPN. Billings has also consulted with many sports media agencies and is a past holder of the Invited Chair of Olympism at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Bie, B., & Billings, A.C. (2014, in press). ‘Too good to be true?’: U.S. and Chinese media coverage of Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen in the 2012 Olympic Games. International Review for the Sociology of Sport.

Hugo Balta, President of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) and Coordinating Producer at ESPN, spoke to a packed house in an APSC-sponsored event on Friday, October 24 that was fr…